SOURCE: MAY/JUNE EQUIPMENT LEASING & FINANCE MAGAZINE
“We wanted to innovate the entire financing process so that everything could be delivered with speed and simplicity.” – Mark Tomaselli, President
Company leaders believed consumer preferences were bleeding into B-to-B markets, making mobile technology, speed and transparency increasingly important to business customers. “Originally, I thought we’d design a mobile app to complement a web-based solution,” says Tomaselli. “But we quickly saw that we could offer more capabilities with mobile technology alone.” Using only mobile technology, the company could enhance security, take advantage of biometric authentication and image-capture, and allow anyone to conduct business with Innovation Finance USA anytime and anywhere.
The leadership team continued its focus on customer experience, thinking the new company might become the Rocket Mortgage of equipment finance. “But when we downloaded the Rocket Mortgage app, we realized it was only an electronic version of the traditional mortgage process,” says Tomaselli.
The discovery formed the basis of a guiding principle: If the technology is mobile, it should be simpler and easier to use than non-mobile counterparts. “We had to rethink business strategy and all our business processes,” says Tomaselli. “When we ran into issues, it caused us to challenge every fundamental approach and ask if there was a better way to do it. We wanted to innovate the entire financing process so that everything could be delivered with speed and simplicity.”
One year after the birth of Innovation Finance USA, the company published its QuickFi mobile application in Apple and Android stores. Says CEO Bill Verhelle, “It took us the first few months of our existence to detox from thinking traditionally. Our biggest challenge was our prior success, which we desperately needed to forget. Biometric authentication, artificial intelligence and blockchain now make for a dramatically more efficient and more secure financial transaction. No salesperson, no paperwork and complete transparency in pricing and terms allow large, creditworthy customers to initiate and complete financing in three minutes!”
